Ljubljana, Opera

The Ljubljana Opera House, previously the home of the Provincial Theatre (Deželno gledališče), was built between 1890 and 1892 to a neo-Renaissance design by the Czech architects Jan V. Hrasky and Anton Hruby. Before the construction of the German Theatre (the present Drama Theatre) in 1911, the building was a venue for productions in both Slovenian and German, and afterwards only for those in Slovenian.

The Opera House's façade has two niches adorned with Alojzij Gangl's allegorical statues of Tragedy and Comedy. The building's characteristic appearance is mainly due to the richly adorned front façade with Ionic columns supporting a majestic tympanum above the entrance. The allegorical sculptures in the tympanum represent Poetry and Glory, and the figure with a torch above them - another work by Alojzij Gangl - an allegory of Genius. The stone pedestals in front of the building support the busts of the Slovenian theatre artists Anton Verovšek and Ignacij Borštnik sculpted by France Kralj in 1921, and the pedestal by the side of the building Stojan Batič's portrait sculpture of Julij Betetto.